


Child of Oblivion

by HouseofSannae



Series: Kingdom Hearts Ψ: The Seeker of Darkness [28]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, No talk Naminé she angy, plotted pre-Kingdom Hearts III, unintentional character study of a building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:22:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26023366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HouseofSannae/pseuds/HouseofSannae
Summary: Ventus, Aqua, and Terra journey to Castle Oblivion to finally change it back into the Land of Departure. Naminé tags along to warm her hands over the metaphorical fire.But Castle Oblivion isn't quite done with them just yet...
Relationships: Naminé & Castle Oblivion
Series: Kingdom Hearts Ψ: The Seeker of Darkness [28]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/960336
Comments: 46
Kudos: 88





	Child of Oblivion

Naminé took a deep breath and resisted the urge to flip the bird at the building in front of her, remembering that despite how much she loathed the place, it was her companions’ home.

As she had requested, Terra, Aqua, and Ven had brought her with them to Castle Oblivion, returning one last time to transform the Castle back into the Land of Departure. Naminé would be more trepidatious about the trip, if not for what had happened three days previously.

Three days previously, Aqua and Vanitas had returned to the Mysterious Tower, bearing the bad news of Zack Fair’s death, and that same night, Vanitas had left the Tower on a personal journey. They’d found the note he left in his room, and Aqua, of course, had tried and failed to convince him to stay.

Naminé studied Aqua closely. She looked tired. Too much loss within too short a span of time. Vanitas’s departure had been a particularly harsh blow; Naminé was certain that Ven and Terra would both be having stern words with him upon his eventual return.

Because he _would_ return eventually.

And it made sense that he would.

They were the only home he’d ever had.

It was the same reason why Aqua, Terra, and Ven were here right now: the Land of Departure was the only home they’d ever known (or at least, that Ven could remember). Even had removed the last traces of the Organization’s presence, and they once more stood on long-lost ground.

It was time to put it to rights.

“So… How do we go about this?” Terra asked, gently touching Aqua on the shoulder, stirring her out of a melancholy. “Do you just point Master’s Defender at the front door and it turns back?”

“I wish it was that simple,” Aqua said, “but no, we actually have to go inside and find the world’s Keyhole to change it back.”

“That makes sense,” Ven said. “It wouldn’t be much of a fortress if you could just turn it off from outside.”

“You going to be all right, Naminé?” Aqua asked, looking at her.

It was a bit rich coming from the woman who’d had her heart torn to shreds twice in the same day, Naminé thought to herself. “I’ll be fine, Aqua,” she said. She smiled. “I’ve got you all with me.”

Aqua nodded. “All right. Climbing the Castle again is probably going to be rough, but–”

“Wait. Climbing the Castle?” Naminé asked, confused. “Why would we need to climb the Castle again?”

Aqua blinked. “To… get to the thirteenth floor?”

“It’s the fourteenth,” Naminé said, “and, no, we don’t have to. The Castle remembers that we’ve been here. We can just warp up to the top again, and take Terra and Ven with us.”

“Oh. That’s convenient,” Aqua said.

Terra was frowning. He’d been told the details of at least Aqua’s side of their initial Castle climb with Kairi, and all the anguish Aqua had been through on the way; she was happy to have her brother and confidant back. “Wait… so, if you’ve been through the Castle’s trials once already, you can just warp throughout it?”

Naminé nodded.

“So… if you three had brought Sora or Riku or Lea on that first trip… you wouldn’t have had to go through each floor one by one?” Terra asked.

Silence reigned. Slowly, Naminé and Aqua turned to look at Terra, then at each other, then at the ground.

“Well, maybe not Lea,” Ven offered. “He was probably Dark Corridor-ing around the Castle.”

“True,” Terra said, not letting his smirk fade for an instant.

Aqua cleared her throat. “Right, so, let’s get started, shall we?”

“Yes, let’s,” Naminé said hurriedly, and the two led the way into Castle Oblivion.

“I think I understand why you hate the colour white,” Ven commented.

“Yeah I dunno, it’s just a sucky colour,” Naminé said, as Ven and Terra took in Castle Oblivion’s entrance hall.

“Where to?” Terra asked, tapping Aqua’s shoulder again, having noticed she was getting lost in her thoughts once more.

Aqua shook herself. “There should be an orb by the door at the end of the hall.”

“Which door?” Ven asked.

Aqua blinked. “What do you mean, ‘which–’?”

Her voice trailed off.

At the end of the hall, where there should have stood a single door leading to the first floor staircase, there stood four doors. At the top of each of them stood four symbols: the emblem of the Land of Departure, a wayfinder, a white flower superimposed on a four-pointed black star, and a curious ornate heart with an elongated, spiked cross at its base, flanked by an angel wing and a devil wing.

“Oh for _fuck’s_ sake,” Naminé groaned, bitter. “Not a- _fucking_ -gain.”

Terra, Ven, and Aqua blinked, all too stunned to chide her word choices. Growling deep in her throat, Naminé thrust her hand into her pocket and withdrew a blue card, emblazoned with the white-flower-black-star symbol. “I hate this motherfucking _bullshit_ ,” she hissed, trying and failing to crumple the card in her hand.

“Well? What are you waiting for?” she asked, looking at the other three. “Check your pockets. Play the Castle’s game of fuckery. Suck my fucking dick,” she added, in an undertone.

“The… um… cards open the doors,” Aqua explained, quietly.

“I… see,” Terra said, unsure whether to try to calm Naminé down. Wisely, he didn’t try; Naminé was extremely dedicated to being angry right now.

“So… four of us, four doors, four cards,” Ven said. “I don’t think it’s trying to make us go all the way up to the top. Maybe it just want to talk to us.”

“Maybe it can kiss my ass,” Naminé muttered.

“The Castle isn’t really actively malicious,” Aqua said, glancing at her. “It should be safe to go in the doors.”

“Well, if that’s our only option,” Terra said. From his pocket, he retrieved a card of his own, emblazoned with the Land of Departure emblem. Aqua and Ven reached into their own pockets, and retrieved cards marked with the wayfinder, and the curiously ornate heart, respectively.

Terra stepped towards his door, glancing back at Aqua and Naminé to ensure he was doing it right, and pressed the card against the door, which clicked open. With a shrug, he stepped through, and the door swung shut behind him.

Ven, following his lead, opened his own door, and entered. Aqua looked at Naminé. “Are you going to be all right?” she asked.

Naminé let out a humourless laugh. “Probably not, but I can handle it. Are _you_ going to be okay, Aqua?”

Aqua’s lip twisted. “…we’ll see,” she said, and walked through her door.

Naminé was left standing alone in Castle Oblivion’s entrance corridor. She sighed. “Fine. One last round of bullfuckery before the end. Fucking piece of shit Castle.” She stomped over to her door, opened it, and stepped through.

Terra blinked.

He’d been expecting more of the white décor, so it was a little jarring that the room he entered was patterned after the creams and golds of the Land of Departure.

In fact, it was the entrance hall. The raised balcony that he and Aqua had had their Mark of Mastery examination on. Down to the three thrones at the back.

Which had someone sitting on them.

It was a teenage boy, younger than Terra himself. He was wearing a sort of sleeveless black haori, decorated with red strings and gold patterns, over a think black undershirt not unlike Terra’s own. Two grey straps crossed his chest, matching his grey pants. A Land of Departure emblem clasped a belt across his waist, not unlike Terra’s own.

The boy had silver eyes, which matched his silver hair.

“Hello, Terra,” the boy said, and Terra’s eyes widened.

He knew that voice.

“Xehanort?” Terra asked, incredulous.

The young Xehanort, younger than the teenager Sora had influenced in the Keyblade Graveyard, shrugged. “Yes and no. I’m not real, or really here. I’m just a projection of the Castle, from its own memory.”

“How does a building have a memory?” Terra asked, skeptical.

“It is a _magic_ building, you realize,” Xehanort deadpanned.

Terra considered this. “Fair enough. Why you?”

Xehanort’s lip thinned. “Why me, indeed.” He stood up from his stiff position on the throne, and walked over to Terra, stopping a respectful distance away. “This me… is a memory from back when I lived here, with Eraqus and our own Master.”

“I figured,” Terra said.

Xehanort nodded. “I think… the Castle chose me to speak with you… because of our similarities.”

A younger Terra might have taken offense at that. This Terra, restored to his proper age but retaining his experiences, simply nodded. “We have the darkness in common.”

Xehanort smiled. “Yes… but you found a way to live with it. To prevent it from controlling you. I failed at that.” His smile faded. “And the Castle feels like it failed me.”

“…it’s a _building_ ,” Terra said, confused.

“A building that is meant to safeguard the people within its walls,” Xehanort explained. “And yet, this student,” he placed a hand on his chest, “was lost to the Darkness. The Castle failed in its duty of protection.”

“As noble as its intentions might be,” Terra said, “ _it’s still a building_. There’s only so much it can do.”

Xehanort smiled, bitterly. “And when you’ve done all you can, and it isn’t enough, how do _you_ feel?”

That brought Terra up short. “I guess that’s a fair point,” he muttered.

“What the Castle wants to say to you,” Xehanort said, “is that it’s sorry it failed you the same way it failed me, and that it’s so relieved that you’ve returned. That you’ve not only survived, but thrived. And that it hopes you can pass on what you’ve learned about darkness to any future students who need it.”

“‘Thrive’ is a strong word,” Terra said. “But… any way I can help whoever needs it, I will.”

Xehanort bowed his head, smiling. “That’s all the Castle would ask of you.” He held out a hand. “Thank you, Terra. And welcome home.”

Slowly, Terra reached out a hand, and shook Xehanort’s. The image of the teen wavered, and burst into a shower of blue butterflies. Terra blinked, confused, then spotted another door behind the three empty thrones, incongruously white.

There was no symbol above the door, and no new card appeared in his pocket, so Terra simply pushed the door open, and stepped through.

Aqua was half-dreading to see the indigoes and violets of the Realm of Darkness beyond her door, so it was a relief to see herself in the Land of Departure, out in the courtyard.

“Which memory is this?” she murmured to herself.

“Oh, not one of yours,” came a voice from off to the side. “One of the Castle’s.”

Aqua turned to see a young teen in a white, blue-accented haori sitting on one of the benches. He wore a dark grey undershirt over brown hakama pants not unlike Terra’s, complete with a gold Land of Departure emblem holding his belt on. Light grey straps crisscrossed his chest, and there was a light dancing in his lilac eyes.

But it was his black hair, tied back in a ponytail but still half-falling over his face, that led Aqua to recognize him.

“Master Eraqus?” she asked, shocked.

The image of Eraqus shook his head, grinning. “Hey, not ‘Master’ yet. Just plain, simple Eraqus. How’re you doing, Aqua?”

Aqua blinked, trying to reconcile the memory of her loving, but stern Master with the bright young lad in front of her. “I’m… um…” she shook herself. “You’re another projection of the Castle? What does it want?”

Eraqus leaned back on the bench, crossing his legs. “Well, for one thing, it wants to check up on all of you, make sure you’re doing okay. Are you doing okay, Aqua?”

“I’m fine,” Aqua said, automatically.

Eraqus rolled his eyes. “Sure you are. Just went through a war and found out a friend died. You’re _fine_.”

Aqua glared at him. “Are you sure you’re the same Eraqus I knew? You’re a bit…”

Eraqus shrugged. “People grow and change over time. You’ll be different when you’re over fifty, I’m sure. But we’re talking about _you_ right now.” He patted the bench next to him.

Reluctantly, Aqua sat down beside him. “Let’s skip the beating around the bush,” Eraqus said. “Of course you’re strained. Of course you’re hurt. And you already know you can rely on your brothers and your friends.”

“If we’re just going to skip the big heart to heart, why are we having this conversation?” Aqua asked.

Eraqus sighed. “Because there’s something else you’ve been worrying about that the Castle wants to try to help you with. It can’t do anything to make your losses feel better, but it can give you this.”

“Give me what?” Aqua asked.

Eraqus grinned. “Give you _me_.”

“I’m sorry?”

“On some level, you’re worried that you don’t have the first clue what being the Master of the Land of Departure means,” Eraqus said, matter-of-factly. “Even though your version of me gave you and Terra all those lectures and lessons, there’s a big difference between theory and practice. And you know, the only person who can decide what kind of Master you are is you… but, you worry, what if you get it wrong? What if you’re not the kind of Master you need to be?”

Aqua stared at him. In all honestly, she’d barely considered the question, but now that he brought it up… she couldn’t deny that she _had_ had that concern, back when she first made Master without Terra. Terra was the senior apprentice, if only by a year, so it was assumed by both of them that he’d be inheriting Master Eraqus’s position; when Aqua had passed first, it threw that into question. She’d never had time to dwell on the question, what with following Terra and Ven, falling into the Realm of Darkness, surviving there, and then being rescued and joining the fight against Xehanort.

“Yeah, I know, seems like small potatoes compared to what you’ve been through,” Eraqus said, watching her face with apparent amusement. “The Castle might be pre-empting this a bit. It won’t get the chance to offer this once you change it back to normal.”

“I… see,” Aqua said, still a little confused. “What do you mean by giving me… you?”

Eraqus spread his arms. “Look at me. You think I had the first idea how to be a Master when the role first passed to me?”

Aqua studied him. “It does seem like a bit of an odd choice,” she said.

Eraqus frowned. “Thanks.” His frown faded. “It was supposed to go to Xehanort, actually. He was the senior apprentice. But, when he passed the Mark of Mastery exam… he turned down the appointment. He wanted to see the worlds.” He sighed. “But that’s an entirely different kettle of fish.”

“I think I see,” Aqua said. “You grew into the role. And you think I will, too?”

Eraqus nodded. “And if you end up feeling that it’s not right for you, you can still pass the Mastery of the world onto Terra, or whoever else you deem more worthy. There’s no shame in that.” He leaned in closer, but not to the point of invading her space. “And for what it’s worth… the Castle has known you for most of your life, and it’s confident you can do this.”

Aqua smiled at the praise. “Thank you. Was that everything?”

Eraqus nodded, and stood. To her surprise, he was actually shorter than her, around Ven’s height. He held out his hand to her, and smiled. “Then, Aqua, all that’s left to say is this: Welcome home.”

Aqua smiled back, rose, and shook his hand. The image of the young Eraqus burst into a cloud of blue butterflies, for no reason Aqua could see. When they had faded, Aqua noticed another Castle Oblivion door standing on the other end of the courtyard.

She looked around at the empty courtyard, nodded, and walked through the door.

“Where am I?” Ven wondered aloud. From the stories he’d heard about the Castle, he figured he was supposed to be in a depiction of one of his memories.

But he’d never seen this place before in his life.

He figured he’d remember a world where the buildings had purple roofs.

He was standing in a wide, tiled courtyard, with five stars arrayed around the petals of a large flower… or it might have been a paopu fruit? At the centre was a tiered fountain, quietly burbling to itself as the water flowed through it. The courtyard was circular, and surrounded in buildings with the aforementioned purple, tiled roofs. In the distance, he thought he could see a two-pronged tower, with a large clock hanging between the two sides. There were staircases in and out of the courtyard, perhaps indicating that this city, wherever it was, was on a slope. The sky overhead was lightening, as if day was breaking.

“Well, that’s the problem. I was kind of hoping you could tell me.”

Ven turned. The speaker was a boy about Ven’s own age. He was wearing a short, black jacket over a button-down white tunic. His pants were a dull brown, and tucked into the tops of his black boots. A tan bag was slung around his hips, and he wore black gloves and a thin, red scarf looped around his neck. He had silver hair and bright blue eyes.

Ven had no idea who he was. “Who’re you?”

The boy spread his arms, shrugging. “Again, hoping you could tell me. I’m from _your_ memories.”

Ven frowned. “I’m sorry, I don’t know you. Are we still in Castle Oblivion?”

The boy brightened. “I can answer that one, actually! Yes. This area, and what I look like, were pulled from your memories by the Castle.”

“Why?” was Ven’s next question.

The boy sat down on the edge of the fountain. “A couple reasons.” Curious, if still a bit suspicious, Ven sat down next to him.

“Firstly,” the boy said, “the Castle wants to apologize.”

“For what?” Ven asked.

The boy waved a hand towards Ven. “Memory is the key. Memory is the Castle’s whole thing… but it can’t fix yours. Whatever happened to you isn’t something the Castle can resolve.”

Ven shook his head. “I think… I’ve pretty much given up getting my memories back. I’d like to find out about my past, sure. But I don’t think I’m going to do that by fixing my memory. I’ll have to find some other way.”

The boy nodded. “Besides, the fact that the Castle got this much out of me means it’s not _all_ gone,” Ven continued. He sighed. “Wish I remembered who you are and where this was, though.”

The boy shrugged. “Well… I know I’m your friend. Maybe I’m still out there somewhere.”

“Maybe,” Ven said. “What was the other thing the Castle wanted?”

“Right,” the boy said. “Well… the Castle has… kind of a bad track record of keeping people safe. So, it just wanted to make sure you’re still doing okay.” There was a hesitant air in the boy’s voice.

Ven reached out, and clapped a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “I’m doing fine,” he said, and smiled. “And it’s nice to know the place I live in cares about my well-being.”

The boy beamed at him. Oddly, it reminded Ven of Sora’s smile. “That’s good to hear,” he said, and extended a hand. “Welcome home, Ven.”

Ven smiled back, and shook the boy’s hand. The boy abruptly exploded into a flutter of blue butterflies. “Oh…kay…” Ven said, then noticed that in front of a large gate across the courtyard now stood a white door. He walked over to it, and took one last look at the town he was leaving behind.

Unbidden, words came to the forefront of his mind. “May my heart… be my guiding Key.”

He wasn’t sure what it meant, but there was all the time in the worlds to figure it out. Ven turned, and went through the door.

The crashing of waves on the shore was calming and peaceful and Naminé was having none of it. The Castle had brought her to the Destiny Islands play island, and she was unimpressed and also still mad.

“Let’s just get this fucking over with,” she grumbled, kicking some stray pebbles into the water.

“Heya, Naminé!”

She turned, to behold Sora in all his fourteen-year-old glory, beaming at her.

There were a few seconds of shocked silence, then Naminé let out a huff of frustration. “Oh, _fuck_ you!” she yelled, in the general direction of the sky. “I can’t fucking be mad at – aaaaargh!” She sat down on the beach, crossing her arms over her legs, fuming.

The image of the younger Sora sat down next to her. “What now?” Naminé muttered. “What do you want? Hasn’t the Castle done enough to me already?”

“Well… if anything, it’s the other way around,” said Sora. There was a sad note in his voice that made her look up at him. “The Castle feels it didn’t do enough _for_ you.”

Naminé snorted. “Oh, because I’m supposed to be happy to be pushed through this bullshit again?”

“Because Castle Oblivion is a fortress designed to protect those hidden within it,” Sora said. “And it utterly failed to protect you. It failed you in the worst way possible. And it knows there’s nothing it can do to make up for that.”

Naminé frowned. “What, it decided forcing me to relive my past ‘but this time, with agency!’ wasn’t enough?”

“Did it bring you peace?” Sora asked.

“…Of course not,” Naminé muttered. “No matter how much I wish I could’ve done things differently, I can’t change the past.”

“Well, then,” Sora said.

Naminé growled. “If it knew nothing could make it better, why the fuck did it try?”

Sora tilted his head. “It’s worse to do nothing when someone is hurting, if there’s something you can do.”

Naminé huffed, and turned away again. “It’s just a fucking building. What does it know?”

“The Castle has seen generation after generation of Keybearers grow up, live, and sometimes die within its walls,” Sora said, looking out over the ocean. “And through it all, save when activated, it can do nothing to prevent any of it. It can do nothing to protect those in its charge, save when activated. So, because it failed to protect you when it had the power to do so… it would do anything it can to ease your suffering.”

“It could start by fucking leaving me alone!” Naminé snapped.

“ _You_ came _here_ ,” Sora replied.

Naminé’s eyes narrowed, and she grunted, unwilling to challenge that.

Sora let her sit in silence for a while. Eventually, she said “I don’t care to be a piece of masonry’s ‘one that got away’. Sometimes, you just have to live with the fact that you fucked up, and nothing can make it better.”

“Are you living with it?” Sora asked.

“…every day of my life,” Naminé muttered. “The only thing I can do is try to learn from my mistakes and be better in the future.”

Sora tilted his head again, smiling at her. Naminé stared at him for a couple of seconds, confused, and then groaned. “Fuck.”

“If you’re going to be Master Aqua’s student,” Sora said, and Naminé didn’t question how the Castle knew about that; it was in her memories, after all, “you’re going to be spending a lot of time here. Or, in the Land of Departure. Are you sure you can handle that?”

“The Land of Departure isn’t Castle Fucking Oblivion,” Naminé replied. “It’s different.” She sighed. “I don’t hate… the building. I hate what happened to me inside it. I hate what _I_ did inside it.”

Sora nodded. “The Castle hates that it couldn’t prevent those things from happening.”

“It’s just a fucking building,” Naminé muttered.

“Even so.”

Silence reigned once more. Eventually, Naminé sighed. “I suppose I can consider it a good thing that a place where children are trained in a skill cares about their well-being,” she said. Sora nodded, without comment.

“What does it want from me?” she asked again, quietly.

Sora shrugged. “It just… wants you to have the happiness you deserve.”

Slowly, Naminé got to her feet, and reached down to help Sora up. He took her hand and let her pull him to his feet, a little confused at her actions. “Well,” she said, “I am happy. I could be happier, but I’m happy.”

Sora nodded, and smiled. “Then it can rest easy.”

Naminé rolled her eyes. “Whoop-de-fucking-do.” She sighed once more.

“I… um… know you never thought of this place as a home,” Sora said, nervously in Naminé’s opinion.

“But the Castle considers me as belonging here?” Naminé scowled.

“No, no, not at all,” Sora backpedalled. “What it’s trying to say is… you’re always welcome back. No matter what.”

“This place is not my home,” Naminé said. “But… I suppose it’s better to be welcomed.”

Slowly, Sora smiled. He seemed to reach for her hand, but thought better of it, and instead bowed, and took a step back. “Goodbye, Naminé. And thank you.”

“For what?” Naminé asked.

“Being honest,” Sora said, and his form dissipated into a swarm of blue butterflies.

“Pretentious piece of shit,” Naminé muttered under her breath. “Empty symbolism is fucking _pointless_.” There was now a white door standing in the middle of the beach, and with one last middle finger to the room, Naminé walked through it.

“That was… a lot simpler that I was expecting,” Aqua said. The doors the four of them had left their rooms through all congregated on a round room with a single throne in the centre: the place where Ven had been hidden, and where the world’s Keyhole was.

“Still bullshit,” Naminé muttered, but accepted Ven’s comforting hand on her shoulder.

“Ready, Aqua?” Terra asked.

Aqua nodded, and summoned Master’s Defender. She leveled the Keyblade at the back of the throne, which flashed and exposed the Keyhole. Ven put his free hand on Aqua’s shoulder, and Terra put his on her other. “Together,” Ven said, and Aqua and Terra nodded.

A bright beam of light extended from the tip of Master’s Defender and impacted the Keyhole. The world itself seemed to rumble. A bright light flashed, blinding them, and when it faded, the room had expanded. Gone were the white walls, gone where the Land of Departure emblems, and the solitary throne had been flanked by two more.

Aqua, Terra, Ventus, and Naminé stood within the entry hall of the Land of Departure, restored now to its former glory.

Ven beamed. “We’re home!”

“We’re home,” Terra echoed.

Aqua lowered the Keyblade, smiling, a little sadly. It might have been home, but it wouldn’t be the same. Not without Master Eraqus. Not without –

“It’s beautiful,” Naminé murmured. “So bright.”

Aqua looked over at her, and her smile brightened. “Want us to show you around? If you’re going to be spending time here, you should probably at least know where the bathrooms are.”

Naminé, despite herself, laughed. “True.”

Terra tapped his chin thoughtfully. “We should probably check the kitchen, too,” he said. “If we’re lucky, everything in it was in stasis like Ven. If we’re not…”

“Ew,” Ven commented.

That brought a larger laugh out of Naminé, and she walked over at Terra’s beckon. Aqua lingered for a moment as they went to see if the food had rotted, knowing it was probably fine.

Instead, she looked at the three empty thrones, and then the Keyblade in her hand.

Reverently, she placed Master’s Defender across the arms of the centermost throne.

“Thank you,” she said – to Castle Oblivion, to Master Eraqus, to the Keyblade itself, she wasn’t sure.

Bowing slightly to the sword in the empty chair, she turned, and went to join her family.

**Author's Note:**

> Well I hope you've enjoyed this installment of "Naminé is Angy". She should have no reason to be this angry ever again, barring being in close contact with any of the _people_ who instill this kind of rage in her... But when would _that_ ever happen?  
> I further hope you like reiteration, since a decent amount of this is retreading stuff we've already covered as per character arcs. This might not have been intended to be a character study for a building, but, well, it kind of turned out that way anyways?  
> I'm sure that nothing that was brought up here will be relevant in any way ever again, least of all the very familiar-looking boy from Ven's memories that used to live in a very familiar-looking town. Yeah, that probably means nothing. At all. Whatsoever.  
> Joking aside, the point of this is that even when I do get around to exploring Ven (and Van)'s past, neither of them will be actually regaining their memories. Those are just plain gone, for good. I think it'll be more interesting to see them interact with KHUx characters who knew them before _without_ access to those memories. Some bonds can transcend lifetimes. And as much as I wanted to not touch KHUx until more canon information comes out, it's looking more and more like I'm just going to do my own thing anyways, even if it'll take me until after a prospective KH4 comes out to get around to them; if only because I tend to get attached to my ideas (see: Braig)  
> A note on symbology: What I call the "Land of Departure symbol" is at least on the KHWiki referred to as "Terra's Mark", which is why it goes to him; the wayfinder of course goes to Aqua; Ven's is the symbol from the Book of Prophecies because of KHUx; and Naminé's, the white flower on the black star, is used to represent her in the Ultimanias.  
> I don't think I have much else to add; this fic is pretty straightforwards. A huge thank you to Duchevick, who said the phrase "Child of Oblivion" back in a comment on Land of Oblivion, and who also agreed to let me use it as a fic title. :P Might have been a while, but I got there in the end, eh?  
> In two weeks, join me once again for the start of a short multichapter, taking a brief glance at what our heroes are doing now that the sword of Xehanormocles isn't hanging over their heads anymore. Until then!
> 
> **Two fics remain.**


End file.
